Keys to Strategic Planning

As you know, we have a forum taking place this Friday. The topic of this forum is Planning your Strategy. This is actually Forum IV, but if you haven’t made it to the previous forums, don’t worry. We do buildon what we have learned in each forum, but jumping in at any point is always good! Knowledge is power, and that is always good for your company. Each new skill you gain will lead you into the next topic. We have also been asked if we are going to have the first three forums again in the future, and the answer is yes! Definitely.

In the previous forums we built a vision of your company, and we’ve looked at your goals and successes. It is important now to ask yourself what are your strengths and weaknesses. Listing a company’s strengths and weaknesses is a normal part of any attempt at strategic planning for virtually all companies. What does your company do well? What could be improved upon? Often when you find your weakness, you discover that which has been holding your company back. Remember yesterday and our review of Good to Great? There hasn’t been a Great company who hasn’t sat down and discussed their strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Incidentally, when we started thinking about our own companies strengths and weaknesses, we realized the value of the DISC assessment. Not only were we able to point to the strengths and weaknesses of the company, but also to those in each individual. These include:

Sales

Marketing

Social Media

Management

Efficiency

Quality of services

Pricing

Finances

Productivity

Organization

You could determine these by asking your business partner, employees, and customers. A simple survey should do the trick. Or hold a meeting with everyone in your company and brainstorm as you sit around your conference table.

The one thing we’d like to leave you with is that once you determine what your strengths and weaknesses are, do something with them. Don’t just have this collection of words, that is not going to do anything for your company. Make your strategic plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. And don’t forget to ask for help. Sometimes a simple push from a business coach can be just what you need to maximize on your companies potentials!